The other night my brake system gave out. Brake light came on. Pedal to floor with no resistance. Yes the pedal would return to its normal position once let off. I checked the brake fluid reservoir and the fluid level dropped below the minimum line. I assumed it was the master cylinder so I removed the cylinder and installed a new master cylinder with abs. Got a one man pressure pump and prepared to Finnish draining out the old fluid. Applied nut removing chemical to each of the blender nuts (nipple) and noticed that the front passenger side caliper brake hose was broken this allowing all the fluid to leak out. Just ordered the new hose and will install it ASAP, then follow up with the bleeding. I'll be using 3-4dot brake fluid for now. Seems no one around here has one part or tool needed to maintain land rover vehicles!

 

I hate to keep seeing you throw money at that rusty thing, but I'd be scared of the condition of the other brake lines too. We don't get too much rust here, so I don't know if that's a normal kind of failure or not. As scary as that is, I'd take a close look at your frame... I'd hate for your truck to just snap in two one day while driving down the freeway.

 

Thanks for the concern. She's old but not junk yet! I've briefly inspected the frame and it looks solid with exceptions to the body mount (possibly). I'll be inspected the other rubber brake hoses asap. Eventually I plan on installing stainless steel brake lines, new slotted and drilled rotors, new ceramic pads and all new calipers. Still a work in progress. It sucks that she needs so many things, but then again I remind myself that she has 197k + and suffered from extreme neglected for who knows how long. Sometimes I feel like giving up, then what? No savings, bad credit, no secondary vehicle, unstable economy etc. I could try to sell my rover for $500 then by another cheap $500 beater car and pray that it DOES not need any work and that it will pass inspection. But then again this IS new England and the weather here is notorious - highly unlikely that ill find any awd or 4x4 in okay shape for $500. Get what I mean? Is what it is, and I'm stuck with her for awhile so might as well keep trying and have some fun.

 

first off, don't waste your money on slotted rotors or stainless steel lines or that other fancy crap after market companies sell. drilled rotors on land rovers rust up in five minutes and pulsate in ten. They are worthless if you live above the mason dixon line. Plus the stainless steel brake hoses are for extending your vehicle's height but that does no good as that requires lots more modifications. Seriously, if the factory stuff lasted twelve years and 200k, then trust me it will keep working another 200k.

 

You bought the prebent brake line? For $5 you can ge a short length with the correct fittings at the auto parts store and bend it up yourself.

 

I contacted several auto parts store, all for whom were unable to even order the part for my rover. I ended up ordering one from DAP enterprise. I assumed it was already bent but I did not ask them. Guess ill have to wait and see.

 

When installing a new master cylinder, does it have to be bench bleed? Is there any other way of bleeding the master cylinder? Like adding new brake fluid to the already installed mc then using a one person pump to bleed the system?

 

I just replaced the master cyl on my 96 you should always bench bleed them. The bench bleeding kit is cheap (under $10). Its worth getting because itll save you a lot of time bleeding the whole system. After i bench bled it only took 20 minutes to bleed the system with someone pumping the brakes, without bench bleeding itll take a lot longer then that. If the M/C is installed you can still bleed it just remove the steel lines and have someone pump the brakes then hook the lines back up and bleed the system.

 

Dam. Just spent $55 on a one person bleeder pump. So what are the steps in bench bleeding? Keep in mind i do not have a work bench of any sort.

 

All the bench bleeding kit is is a couple fitting that screw into the MC and a couple flexible hoses that you put right back into the resevoir. You can mount the MC in the truck and hook the bleeder hoses up and just fill the resovoir up put in the bleeder hoses and pump away till theres no more air bubbles then reatatch the metal lines then bleed the system.